Search All 1 Records in Our Collections

Welcome to the new Collections Search. You can still use the previous version of the site at this link.

The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more. Search below to view digital records and find material that you can access at our library and at the Shapell Center.

Howard A. Rosenberg of the Anti-Defamation League, Orange County, California, conducted the interview with Leo Mergrun on May 14, 1993. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum received the copy of the interview from the Anti-Defamation League, Orange County, California on May 3, 2000.

John Friedman, born October 19, 1913 in Vrbove, Czechoslovakia (now Slovenia), describes his life before the war; his parents Adolph and Rudolphina; his father’s occupation as an electrician and cameraman; his family’s move to Austria when he was three months old; his father’s service in the military; his education in public school; his parent’s divorce; his graduation and occupation as a linoleum businessman; his arrest by the Gestapo and transport to Dachau; his time in Dachau until July 1938 when he was transferred to Buchenwald; his transfer to Linz, Austria in October 1938; his release from Linz; his acquisition of a passport that allowed him to travel to Shanghai; his job working for the British City Government of Shanghai supervising trash dumps; his jobs for Toyota and Nissan that allowed him to escape the ghetto; his survival in Shanghai; his mother who stayed in Shanghai; his time in Canada after his unsuccessful attempt to enter the United States; his marriage in 1950; his and his family’s immigration to California in 1952.

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.